Swimming goggles are comprised of two frames each having a lens fixed thereon. The frames have an inward facing side which is to be in sealing or leakage proof contact engagement with the wearer's face in order to prevent water from entering the space between the frames and the wearer's face. To provide a comfortable engagement between the frames and the wearer's face, soft and resilient pads are provided on the frames to be sandwiched between the frames and the wearer's face. Such pads may be made of a number of materials and in a numer of wayes.
For example, in FIG. 1 which shows a prior art swimming goggle structure, the pads are made of foam material 32 which are attached to the frames 31 of the swimming goggles. FIG. 2 shows another prior art design of swimming goggles, wherein the pads comprise a resilient ring 40 having a face contact flange 401 and received and held in an engaging slot 411 formed on the respective lens frame 41. In addition, conventionally, all swimming goggles are provided with a connection section on the outer side to connect a head strip, such as the connection section 33 or 43 formed on the lens frame 31 or 41 of the swimming goggles illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The head strip 34 or 44 is secured to the connection sections 33 or 43 to allow the lens frames 31 or 41 to be fixed on the wearer's head.
The foam body 32 and face contact flange 401 adapted in the prior art swimming goggle designs, although effective in providing a comfortable engagement with the wearer's face, yet has a drawback that is the force caused by the tension induced in a tightened head strip when the swimming goggles are worn and acting upon the connection sections of the lens frames is generally concentrated in the areas of the wearer's face that are close to the connection sections, making the wearer uncomfortable to some extent. This may be further explained with reference to FIG. 2. Conventionally, the connection sections 43 are located close to the outer canthus of the wearer's eyes so that when the head strip 44 is tightened in wearing the swimming goggles, the tension of the head strip 44 causes a force acting upon each of the connection sections 43 which concentrates at the area of the wearer's face in the proximity of the eye canthus. The skin and muscle near the outer canthus are then stretched and strained, creating irritation.
In view of such a drawback present in almost all the prior art designs of swimming goggles, it is desirable to have an improved swimming goggle structure which reduces or substantially eliminates such an irritation problem caused by tightened head strip.